An Evaluation of the Implications of EU Climate and Energy Governance for the UK in light of Brexit

Thomas Louis Muinzer

Abstract

The UK is presently engaged in a process of leaving the EU. This process, and its broader effect on UK and EU law and governance, is complex and uncertain. This analysis hones in on the sphere of climate and energy governance, investigating the EU’s supranational regime in order to elucidate fundamental aspects of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU for the UK Low Carbon Transition in the sphere of energy decarbonisation. The analysis focuses most pointedly on the EU arena, rather than the UK’s internal state arena, and elucidates aspects of the impact of Brexit on the UK through examination of the EU-UK legal and political interface. This permits lessons to be drawn that can usefully inform broader assessments of the significance of Brexit’s impact on the UK’s ongoing climate and energy decarbonisation process.